funny when musicians complain about "having to do 6 hours of interviews" when they wake up, then having to go do 2 hours of soundcheck/show, then do it again the next day. That's, like, roughly 8 hours of work a day. It's a good job us non-musicians don't have to be subjected to doing 8 hours of work a day, isn't it?

he's just sick of doing all the promo (although the letter reads like that). He fired his drummer on stage in NYC in a really drunken, overdramatic manner and did this awful pretentious interview (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StZJNnHHFtg). Lots of people were a bit scathing about it on that thread. I think it pushed him over the edge.

Why he looked at his own forum, I don't know. You'd have to be fucking mental.

I didn't really have a view on him one way or the other, until I did a bit of street teaming for him earlier this year. For those who don't know, you don't generally get paid for doing the whole "want to sign up on the mailing list?" thing, you get tickets for the gig and a copy of the album. Plus you get to talk to all of the fans. I love doing it.

Anyhow, from this I caught one of his gigs and got a copy of "The Magic Position" and really liked both. And it was obviously that his fans are devoted - SERIOUSLY devoted. He should think himself pretty lucky. It's entirely his call and I'm not going to say any of that "whinging sod/try a real job" stuff because I bet it really IS hard work. But I would say that he makes a lot of the drummer thing, then says that's not the issue. Hmmm. Well, it can't have helped. One (hopeful) benefit of major label support is that hopefully they can help him shed timewasters (they want him to make money for them, after all) and that once he's done this, he can enjoy himself a bit. Certainly seemed happy enough at the gig I saw (in Bristol)

Anyhow, between now and November is a long time. Fiver says he'll change his mind.

You get the opportunity to do it for all sorts of acts. So as well as doing it for acts I like, sometimes I like to take a complete flyer on something I've heard about but whose music I'm not familiar with. It's risk-free (seeing as you don't pay to get in), and I work as hard to get e-mails or whatever for acts I don't know as those I do.

I enjoyed this one more than most I've done, simply because the fans were so nice.

Firing your drummer on stage? Throwing a cymbal at someone's face? Whinging about anything and everything that crosses your path? Never mind Kate Bush, this is like he's been possessed by the glorious spirit-ah of Mark E Smith.

it pisses me off when artists who can devote their lives to their art don't appreciate the position that they are in. there are people who would kill to be in the position that y..musicians like patrick wolf are in..does patrick wolf have to take a shitty 9-5 job just so he can eat every day? when he tours, does he have to drive himself everywhere in a van, wondering whether the vehicle will actually survive the journey..wondering whether anyone will actually be there to see him anyway?

stop wanking for a minute you primadonna faux-arcadia cunt and appreciate just how damned lucky you are

i wasn't aware of that..though i'm sure that's not the case now..i'm not necessary saying that he's loaded, but then he's certainly not working an office temping job to get by now...
though i'm not just talking about patrick wolf, only mentioned him because of the context of this story..it can certainly be generalised..

The last time I spent time with Patrick, he was visibly drained and had recently been in hospital. He doesn't get on well with any of this stuff and despite the positivity he had in January, it's noticeably changed him.

So he doesn't have to work a 9-to-5 gig like the rest of us, but the life of a professional artist on the cusp of genuine fame is a peaks-and-troughs hard slog that, believe it or not, is incredibly stressful and only sporadically remunerative. Just watching people like j_wo do all the work they do to get to the 'niche' status they have now proves that, for me.